Tag: IPCPR

Cigar makers are trying to snuff out an effort by the Food and Drug Administration to regulate their products for the first time.

The FDA said in its regulatory agenda for the year that it would propose rules in April to expand federal oversight of tobacco products under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. The news was welcomed by tobacco giants, such as Altria, that want all tobacco products to be brought under the same regulations, according to a Washington, D.C. regulation blog The Hill.

Sellers and makers of premium cigars — often hand-rolled, slow-burning and made with aged tobacco leaves — say the FDA is overreaching, and are hiring lobbyists to fight back.

Glynn Loope, the executive director of Cigar Rights of America, said the FDA’s move is “a classic case of going beyond congressional intent.”

“When Congress passed the original Tobacco Control Act, it was really to address two primary points: youth access to tobacco and chemical addition. Premium cigars don’t meet that criteria,” Loope said.

Another trade group for cigar retailers and manufacturers agreed that the FDA is distorting the law.
“It’s our belief that the act was to prevent youth from smoking and curtail the health effects for youth,” said Bill Spann, CEO of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association.

Spann said FDA meddling could have a devastating impact on cigar shops. The group has warned that regulators could ban walk-in humidors and seasonal cigar blends, restrict store advertising or even place graphic warning labels on the ornate cigar boxes that are coveted by collectors.

The pushback against FDA rules is also coming from overseas.

In February, the Cigar Rights of America organized a letter from the ambassadors of the tobacco-growing nations Honduras, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua to officials at the White House, State Department and the FDA, warning that new regulation would threaten thousands of jobs and “raise the specter of political and economic consequences within our region.”

A new Davidoff of Geneva cigar will roll into Vegas for the annual International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association’s (IPCPR) annual trade show to be held on July 13–17.

Swiss cigar maker Oettinger Davidoff Group will launch the new brand, Davidoff Nicaragua, which Davidoff CEO Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard said is the company’s first Nicaraguan puro featuring a decade-old Nicaraguan Havana-seed Rosado wrapper and a blend of tobaccos from the country’s major leaf growing regions.

Davidoff experts, led by master blender Hendrik “Henke” Kelner, embarked on a worldwide search for tobaccos that would enable them to create a unique cigar. The search landed the team in the tobacco fields of Nicaragua.

Preparing, curing and ageing this tobacco for 10 years with the unique expertise of Davidoff craftsmen in the Dominican Republic allowed the company time to ‘tame’ the wilder tendencies of Nicaraguan tobacco and deliver a blend with intensity and excitement and all the refined sophistication you would expect from Davidoff.

The new ‘Davidoff Nicaragua’ line will come in three sizes: Toro (5 ½ inches by 50 ring), Robusto (5 by 50) and Short Corona (3 ¾ by 46), and the blend combines a 10-year old, Havana-seed wrapper with a binder from Jalapa and a filler blend of tobaccos from Estelí, Condega and the volcanic region of Ometepe. ‘Davidoff Nicaragua’ will only be available in limited quantities per year.

“This is a major step, for us to expand to a new territory” says Davidoff CEO Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard. “I wanted to develop products that were not necessarily origin-specific or rigidly tied down to one specific place. Davidoff is a brand, not a territory.”